Talmudic medical recipes (9)

Text
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 69a:
For the disease ˀswqy, take the dust from the shadow of a toilet, knead it in honey and let him eat (it), which will be effective for him.

Thompson 1923: 83 1.14: Dust from the proximity of a toilet is likely to be a Deckname in the Talmud for a secret ingredient. The reference to dust of the toilet as materia medica can be compared to Akkadian eper asurrê, ‘dust of the latrine/toilet.’ The toilet itself was feared as the habitation of the demon Šulak, and the toilet demon is mentioned also in Talmud, Git. 70a., as šd byt hksˀ. The additional comment that the recipe ‘is effective’ (lit. ‘will be of value to him’) has also Akkadian parallels in the medical texts which usually end with the statement ‘he will get better’ (inaˀeš or ‘he will be well’ (iballuṭ), but occasionally one finds additional statement that the recipe is effective, e.g. ‘everything (mentioned in the recipe) is effective for lung congestion’ (ana kiṣirte hašê kalama damqu).

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 69a
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 70a

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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